Cooke Estate To Pay $20 Million To Widow

When The Wife Of Former Washington Redskins Owner Jack Kent Cooke Got Nothing When He Died, She Sued.

April 14, 1998|By Peter Finn and Michael D. Shear, Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The estate of former Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke has agreed to pay his widow $20 million to settle her challenge to his will.

The move avoids a sensational trial that would have revealed embarrassing details about the couple's relationship, sources familiar with the agreement said Monday.

The settlement, which has not been ratified in court, provides Marlene Ramallo Cooke with financial security after she was left with nothing in the will that her husband wrote 13 weeks before he died last year.

At the same time, the agreement ensures that most of the estate, which is estimated at $500 million to $825 million, will go to a charitable trust, as Jack Kent Cooke had instructed. Marlene Cooke argued that under Virginia law she was entitled to one-third of his fortune.

The outcome also will make it easier for John Kent Cooke, the late Cooke's son and the president of the Redskins, to purchase the football team from the charitable foundation.

Dan K. Webb, an attorney for the Cooke estate, confirmed that the two sides reach- ed an out-of-court agreement and that Marlene Cooke's lawsuit, which was scheduled to go to trial next week in Fauquier County, Va., Circuit Court, will be dismissed in the next few days. Webb would not provide further details, saying the agreement specifies that the terms are to remain secret. Marlene Cooke's attorneys would not comment.

The settlement puts a sudden end to what had become an increasingly nasty duel between high-powered lawyers.

Attorneys for the estate accused Marlene Cooke of ``deserting and abandoning'' her husband while he was alive, in violation of a premarital agreement, and sought permission to question her male friends. They also alleged that after he died, she took more than 400 items that did not belong to her, including family heirlooms and his briefcase and wallet.

Marlene Cooke's attorneys said her husband had bullied her into signing the premarital agreement and described him as a ``psychological predator'' who constantly tracked her whereabouts. They also said Jack Kent Cooke had secretly tape-recorded his telephone conversations and that the tapes contained derogatory comments he made about blacks and Jews.

Despite all the rancor, both sides needed to settle the case, because the stakes in a trial were simply too great, outside legal experts said Monday.

A trial also would have been deeply embarrassing to Marlene Cooke and to Jack Kent Cooke's family, lawyers said.

``Both sides would have thrown vast quantities of mud,'' said one lawyer involved in the case who asked not to be identified. ``This is good for Marlene's reputation. It's a good thing for the good name of Jack Kent Cooke.''

Cooke, who died of congestive heart failure on April 6, 1997, changed his will eight times in the last few years of his life. The final version cut his wife out and left most of his fortune to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a charitable trust for gifted and underprivileged young people.

Marlene Cooke will not receive the $20 million settlement all at once, according to the sources familiar with the agreement. The schedule of payments could not be learned Monday.

Judge William Shore Robertson, who would have presided over the trial, has been informed of the settlement and is expected to dismiss the case once the appropriate documents have been filed in court, Webb said.

There are still legal clouds for the 45-year-old Bolivian woman, however. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is pursuing deportation proceedings against her because of a felony drug conviction. She contends she had an agreement with the government that allowed her to stay in the country in exchange for becoming an informant. The government disputes that there was such a deal, and the case is before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The settlement of her challenge to the will has no effect on her immigration difficulties, legal experts said Monday. But they said it nonetheless provides much relief for a woman who is accustomed to the perks of wealth.

``She has probably managed to secure her future, so to speak,'' said Barbara Sloan, an estate planning lawyer with Shulman Rogers, a Rockville, Md., law firm. ``But at the same time,[ the executors) have managed to make[ her lawsuit) go away and get on with the business of the estate.''

Webb and Brendan Sullivan, one of Marlene Cooke's attorneys, began their settlement talks a week ago, Webb said.